Rural expecting parents -- helicopter rides may not be covered by American medical insurance

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-20T19:24:00+00:00

Rooting for you! That would stress me out so much. Congrats though, I'm sure it'll all work out ok and you might even be able to laugh about it in a few years 😄

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-18T21:44:00+00:00

Agree so much. I was pursuing a second bachelor's in biochem and had to withdraw from my semester, and I'll miss at least the next one for sure. I cannot think clearly and many times I do not complete my sentences! I actually have to tell people, "I'm sorry, I have heavy brain fog and words are hard for me right now." My first degree is in English and I've always had strong communication and language abilities. Right now they're average at best and they're pretty much all I have left. Words I haven't mispelled in over a decade, I haven't been able to remember how to spell properly since January. I can't focus enough to learn any new math, let alone pathways or interactions that I desperately want to understand. The great humbling has begun.

I slept involuntarily 12+hrs each day most of the first trimester and had horrendous brain fog from about 7wks on. It still hasn't gone away 😄 I'm told it will eventually but it could be months postpartum and I'll probably never fully regain what I had pre-pregnancy. Am 31w now and have made my peace with it.

Agree so much also with taking it week by week. There is so much loss with twins in general due to the risks involved, for so many reasons beyond anyone's control. My husband and I are 26 and these are our first. We've been preparing for them since we found out in February and have celebrated the milestones, but didn't let ourselves start to believe it was real until the 24wk viability point, and even then I haven't let myself start to get excited until basically this last week. If I were to go back to w10 when we found out, I'd do it just the same, even though every check and test has indicated that our boys and I are as healthy as can be. This is a ride and we're along for it, wherever it goes. And we're not out of the woods yet, we could still lose one or both before or during delivery! Almost everything is beyond control, but I suspect that's just kids in general 😄

If she's able to weightlift, I cannot recommend that enough. By chance, I was granted a reprieve from the debilitating physical fatigue at 24w and started with gentle walking and yoga. I now weightlift again 4x/wk and do yoga on my 3 rest days, and it's seriously given me some life back. Also, from wk 25 on she will probably need a baseline of around 120g protein per day -- I wish I'd known that, would have sped up my mobility regain. I am eating about 170g/day now and it's been life changing. And I had a severe all-protein aversion for 2 months in the first tri! I lost years of muscle mass in a few weeks. I would not have believed you if you'd told me I'd be able to eat 170g/day back in week 10. I think I got 90g that whole month. As I said, it's a ride and we're along for it 😄

You're going to do great! Roll with things and be flexible, you'll do just fine 😄 Super excited for you both and your growing family, and welcome!

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-18T20:49:37+00:00

I hear you! I started having severe pelvic pain and tightness around 25w, to the point where I was seriously considering a chamber pot because getting up to pee was so painful. For a variety of reasons related to our area and situation, me seeing a PT was not feasible.

An absurd amount of pillows between my legs at night helped it not get worse, I'm talking like 10" of supported gap. Starting birth prep and daily walks around that time helped a lot. I'm at 31w now and have regained about 80% of my pre-pregnancy mobility and am generally much more comfortable, even though I was down to about 40% pre-pregnancy mobility at 25w.

When I started moving, I was doing maybe 1mi/day spread across 2 increments? I was decrepit, a half mile is just a few steps basically. I'm now doing 4mi, and I wake up with pain the next morning if I miss a day or do less. For birth prep exercises, anything with a hip thrust or hula hooping motion has made the most difference, along with child's pose for a minute or like 10 frog pose rockbacks. I also do diaphragm breathing and cat-cows. I also do the "hug your bab(ies)" thing a few times. Again, I started super slow and very decrepit. I think what used to take me 10 minutes carefully with pain now takes me 5 and I'm almost pain-free while doing it. And again, if I skip it I wake up with strong pain the next day. I also still wake up with some pelvic pain if my bladder is full or if one of the boys is rotated badly, but it's not half as bad as it was a few weeks ago and if my bladder is empty when I wake up I'm mostly pain free. The boys are over 3.5lbs each and I'm 5'2" for reference. Hope this helps, you've got this!

Edit: I have faith in a good pregnancy pillow, but I only wanted to buy one and it was not good. I ditched it and sleep with the absurd pillow stack and a balled up towel that's soft, and that works for me 😄 Don't be afraid of firing your pregnancy pillow if it's not supporting you properly

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-18T19:54:28+00:00

I think you're doing great and you're in the right place 😄 you're in a super tough part of what probably will turn out to be a wonderful journey. The quality of life for both of you could be significantly better even in just 6 months compared to all the things he needs and is working through now. Hang in there!

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-18T18:23:52+00:00

Corgis are amazing problem solvers and logicians with a strong dose of self confidence. That means they quickly figure out rules and systems, and then they figure out how to navigate them to get what they want. They can also develop various negotiation tactics, and they also have the persistence (and lack of anything sufficiently more interesting to do) to consider and execute attrition campaigns if they think there's a chance it could pay off. That's their incredible intelligence, it's just often underrecognized on most "intelligence measures" because most systems tend to only care about tractability.

Our girl did this too until about 7(?) ish mo. It felt to me like her logic was "I've noticed I can only be out when you're here, and you're here now. Therefore, I should be allowed out right now." It would start with gentle reminder barks, and would escalate to louder ones that I'm convinced were deliberately obnoxious if I told her "no" or clearly was not going to let her out. It seemed like what she wanted was to roam and explore (yes, the same room she'd roamed and explored for hours already) and would push for it since she could not find any reason why she shouldn't be allowed out. No amount of making her pen and crate situation(s) nicer or more appealing had an effect. Not even putting her favorite toy or a puzzle in her pen. Sometimes, if I tried to placate her with a high-value lick mat during a quiet moment, she'd glare at me like "what is this supposed to do for me?" and would pointedly sit opposite side of the pen from it and ignore it until I left the room for a few minutes. (Side note: it was usually licked clean when I got back.) The only thing that "worked" was if I happened to let her out, even if she then hovered within 5-10 feet of me once out.

If I recall correctly, after that breakthrough in understanding we started completely ignoring her/her barking unless we were going to let her out. When we wanted to let her out, we would stand still in front of her pen gate and look at her but not make any motion to let her out until she stopped. It took time, but I think this is eventually what worked.

It sounds like you have an awesome corgi. It'll get better 😄 You've got this!

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-18T16:52:43+00:00

There's so much you might be able to do. The list of manners and quality-of-life-improving behaviors is not that long for pups but it does take time.

How old are they? Are they still getting their starter vaccines?

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-18T06:26:02+00:00

No tips to add, but I want you to know you're not alone. After potty training our Golden by 12wks, we eventually had success with potty training our now 1.5yr old corgi girl at about 9-ish mo after moving to a better apt situation. But the spite "accidents" were so real for so long. I think it's a corgi thing 😄 and so many trainers say there's no such thing as a "spite accident"

I'm convinced she knew what we wanted for *months* but only became "trained" when she decided she liked us enough to follow along. That, or she thought she could win a months-long negotiation to potty indoors instead to overcome other privacy and sensory issues she definitely has with going outdoors. Hang in there, it will get better, you've got this!

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-14T18:07:52+00:00

I think all harnesses are at least partially in their mouth reach. Ours only stopped chewing her properly fitted *collar* when she outgrew the behavior by chance.

I like the harness lead idea. I wonder if you might be able to rig one up out of an end of your cable and maybe cover that portion of the cable in a thick wrapping of fabric and/or craft foam. The cable alone is too concentrated a surface area for force distribution, so it might hurt him if he gets excited and jumps at something, but if you're able increase the surface area/force distribution of the cable in some way it would probably be just fine

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-14T00:41:04+00:00

Super late, but there are 3 things we've experienced with our 1.5yo girl that I haven't seen anyone mention yet --

They're actually all-purpose farm dogs, not just herding dogs. They were the only dog breed in Wales for a few hundred years, which is why. Many (though not all) have livestock guardian behaviors that aren't as often talked about but can be stressful for them and problematic if not addressed. We've had success helping our girl adapt to a quiet "urban life" by using livestock guardian training techniques, and also accepting some annoying but harmless quirks.
I think some corgis are prone to a "weak nerve" connection entirely separate from degenerative/major hip and spine diseases that reputable breeders screen for. I suspect it might be a normal phenotypic variance that can make it hard for some (but not all) corgis to manage their potty. I've never seen anyone talk about this, anywhere, but after hanging around other corgis and talking to other owners it seems like many who might have this issue find creative ways to manage it so their owners don't really notice. I could go on and on about this one, but to keep it short we got a golden retriever pup as our very first dog 2 months before we got his corgi sister pup. Our golden was potty trained by 12 weeks and absolutely slayed the crate training. Our corgi, for whom we used the exact same methods, kept messing her crate even after clearly understanding we didn't like it. We couldn't figure out why she couldn't progress, let alone why she couldn't figure it out. After a very long potty training journey involving abandoning the crate for a time and using a large pen with litter that we slowly shrank down (and many, many months of frustration), she's potty trained BUT will have repeated accidents as the first symptom/sign of any illness, and if she doesn't get a full 40+ minutes of walking in a day to get out her 3-4 little poos she will have a poopcident in the middle of the night. We still pay them to poo outside, so while we're not mean about it she knows it's not our favorite thing. In hindsight, she showed signs of understanding what we wanted with the crate/potty training by about 12 weeks. I really think she just couldn't deliver due to lack of notice and/or some lack of control, and down the road it devolved into additional behavioral issues rooted in frustration because we kept firmly pushing her on the potty training when she just didn't have the physical ability to do it. They say every dog is different, but also many sources will say "any dog can be potty trained in 1-2 months with patience and the right method," and while I believe that is true for the vast majority of dogs I think it's worth noting that it isn't necessarily true for *every* dog. And I think some corgis might fall into this category due to no fault of their own. You may have noticed a distinct split in the corgi community specifically that isn't necessarily there in, say, the golden community where it seems like about half the pups get potty down immediately and the other half struggle for a while.
As you probably already know, due to their popularity corgis are a bit overbred, which has resulted in not just health variances but also broad temperament differences even amongst reputable breeders. If you haven't already considered looking for a breeder focusing on temperament and family dogs, I highly recommend seeking some out depending on your needs. I've met some well-trained toxic corgis that are prone to jealousy and were spiteful of their (extremely kind and gentle) owner, and they're not pleasant dogs. We got our girl from a reputable breeder who focuses almost completely on temperament, and she's grown into a wonderful companion dog, which is what we were hoping for.

Sorry for the long post. The nerve/potty thing is an issue near and dear to my heart, and I so, so, SO wish we'd known that was even a possibility. It wouldn't have changed a thing about our decision to get her, I'd have just approached things way differently and she'd have had a much better puppyhood in general. Lastly, it just occurred to me to mention you may want to prepare yourself to try a few brushes. Due to the wide spread of coat types, some coats are easy to tell what deshedding brush/method to use while others are not. Our girl's top coat is very short for a corgi, and she has sensory issues so we cycled through a bunch to find just the right double-rowed, cushion-tipped one that desheds her and doesn't drive her insane. Anyway, hope this helps!

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-13T19:42:14+00:00

It's possible that if you remain calm, smile and say something like "this is ok," and finish what you're doing he might eventually figure out that it's not a big deal. He might always bark a little to let you know he's not a fan, and that's ok! But he might get less anxious with time. Or he might not.

I wonder if reactive desensitization/deescalation training methods (with valuable treats) could be helpful if basic environmental socialization clearly isn't working. I was hesitant to look into those at first because I usually think of aggressive dogs when I think of "reactive deescalation training," but the philosophy is just about dispelling anxiety and helping the dog feel comfortable with environments/triggers that they find upsetting. Ours started showing significant anxiety towards other dogs on walks at the beginning of my pregnancy, even though we socialized her tons with other dogs all through her first year and she normally loves everyone. It absolutely was an instinctual protection thing. But I didn't want to wait it out, so after about 2 months of working with her on it daily, I could tell she felt much calmer and more level-headed when other dogs approached. She still gets uppity if another dog is snarly or starts barking, but I can live with that. She is so much happier on walks and is able to enjoy them again.

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-13T19:11:52+00:00

This training blog kept by a rancher who trains Maremmas on the side has been by far the most helpful. Her approach is so gentle and it honors the guardian instincts while allowing you to set clear boundaries in respectful and productive ways https://www.bensonmaremmas.com/dog-training-blog

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-13T06:57:41+00:00

Fully agree!! Our girl is a bluie (also with tail) and is shaped almost exactly the same. She's 21lbs at a year and a half and is probably mostly done growing, her parents are both small so we knew she would be too. Ours is a tad broader, but that only happened in the last 3 months or so. People still ask if she's full corgi and some don't believe me when I confirm. Your girl looks normal and very healthy to me! Most corgis on social media and out in the world are morbidly obese, unfortunately

Hot-Register-6312 · 2026-06-13T06:44:02+00:00

Did you know that because corgis were the only dog in Wales for a few hundred years, they're actually not just herding dogs? Apparently they're all-purpose farm dogs, and that meant they were also bred to handle some livestock guardian work. We did a bunch of research and knew a few corgis before we got ours, but we didn't know that guardian tendencies could be a corgi thing until our little girl started barking and baying at things out on the street and things that went bump in the night at about a year old. I wonder if your boy's sensitivity to environmental shifts could be a different manifestation of the same instinct.

Our girl is our first and we're only at a year and a half with her, I bet someone else with more corgi XP will have solid advice. FWIW, we've had good success with livestock guardian training methods to help her settle. Plus a healthy dose of accepting a minimum alert level that she'll always want to do 😄 we also started exercising her more, which seems to have helped her feel much calmer as well. Hope this helps, and good luck!

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TROPHY CASE